Swazi Observer

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EHB TO INTRODUCE RENT-TO-OWN

By SIFISO NHLABATSI | 2023-08-01

The Eswatini Housing Board has disclosed that as part of its 2023-2026 strategic plan, it was looking to work on a rent-to- own initiative.

This will see Emaswati who are unable to access housing finance being able to rent properties with the aim of eventually owning those properties.

The EHB was established as a parastatal organisation by an Act of Parliament in 1988.

Its defined functions were to develop affordable housing schemes required by government and to implement, as directed, shelter-related policies.

Visited

EHB Chief Executive Officer, Mduduzi Dlamini, during his presentation before the UN Habitat Mission Director for the Regional Office in Africa Sylla Oumar yesterday, said they had visited other countries where housing was not just an economic concept.

Dlamini said they have had occasions where they visited countries such as Singapore, Malaysia and Rwanda, who said for them the issue of housing, especially social housing, was not just an economic concept but a political concept because when the government enabled citizens to own homes, the citizens became more aligned in the interest of government and were more patriotic to the State.

The initiative was commended by participants, who included the Minister of Housing and Urban Development, Prince Simelane and chief executive officers from municipalities and town boards, saying it would enable the next generation to own homes.

As part of its strategy and mandate to promote home ownership in Eswatini, the EHB found that a majority of the population was unable to access housing finance through the commercial banks.

Disclosed

In order to tap into that value chain, EHB disclosed that it intended to establish a Housing Finance Unit, which would offer nationals an alternative solution to that which is currently available, and often limiting to the average citizen.

This comes at a time when it was announced that Emaswati could now purchase sectional title property.

Having passed the Sectional Titles Act in 2018, the ministry of housing and urban development last year finally gazetted the commencement of the Act.

The Sectional title is the separate ownership of a unit within a complex or development.

This is in contrast to a freehold, or ‘full title’, where you purchase full ownership rights to a property, including the building and the land upon which it is built.

Minister Simelane made the announcement through Legal Notice No. 88 of 2022 published in the Eswatini Government.

Country commits to New Urban Agenda

The ministry of housing and urban development reiterated its commitment to the New Urban Agenda (NUA) adopted during the Habitat III held in Quito, Ecuador on October 21, 2016.

This according to the Minister, Prince Simelane, is a new framework that lays out how cities should be planned and managed to best promote sustainable urbanisation.

Simelane was addressing the UN Habitat Mission Director for the Regional Office in Africa, Sylla Oumar and local government chief executives at Mountain View Hotel.

The minister said the NUA presents a paradigm shift based on the science of cities and lays out standards and principles for the planning, construction, development, management and improvement of urban areas along its five main pillars of implementation: national urban policies, urban legislation and regulations, urban planning and design, local economy and municipal finance and local implementation. “Eswatini Government wishes to actively participate and contribute to global processes on housing, human settlements and urban development. In mid-2014, the Eswatini Government, through my ministry, requested to be included in UN Habitats Participatory Slum Upgrading Programme (PSUP),” the minister said.

He said although presently there was very limited collaboration between government and UN-Habitat, they were hopeful that the director’s visit would unlock the necessary bottlenecks.

The minister said the post 2015 development framework, which acknowledges that the majority of mankind would be in cities by 2050 and therefore includes Sustainable Development Goal 11 on urbanisation made it imperative for government and UN-Habitat to work together.

Prince Simelane said concepts in the NUA being advocated for by UN Habitat within the context of Habitat III provide solutions that could help many countries achieve the above SDG 11.

“As noted above, Eswatini's key national policies and plans need updating and implementation strategies and capacities strengthened by incorporating and domesticating new concepts and approaches,” the minister stated.

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